Toronto Star – Allan Woods

Quebec probes alleged police abuse of aboriginal women

Spokespersons for the Aboriginal women alleging sexual abuse by the Sureté de Québec are suggesting that the cases uncovered so far are just the tip of the iceberg and probably is common across Canada. So far, at the request of the provincial government Montreal police are investigating eight provincial police officers for a variety of sexual assaults and other offences against native women in Val d’or. Quebec Public Security Minister Lise Theriault was in tears at the press conference announcing the investigation. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/10/23/quebec-probes-police-treatment-of-aboriginal-women.html

Ottawa Citizen – David Pugliese

Military faces crude jokes on its sexual misconduct plan

The long awaited plan from the Canadian Forces for responding to sexual abuse and assault in the military is out and drawing crude jokes instead of any comfort for the victims. Op-Honour (short for Operation Honour) has become “Hop-on-her” and Lt. General Christine Whitecross who designed and delivered a hard hitting plan has been re-assigned. Canadian Forces spokesman Capt. Jean-François Lambert said: “the military believes it has made significant progress dealing with sexual misconduct but “we cannot expect to change culture overnight.” http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/military-faces-crude-jokes-on-its-sexual-misconduct-plan

Ottawa Citizen – Anne Cools

We cannot forget the Senate’s place in the foundation of Canada

This article may be both timely and fortuitous in the light of the questions around the future of the senate and its possible role with a majority Conservative members capable of being an obstacle to the new Liberal government. Trudeau has the option of making some 26 appointments to the Senate but he has already decided to exclude Senators from the Liberal caucus and set them as independent members. The NDP has insisted on getting rid of the Senate and the Conservatives under Harper, having appointed 59 senators, proclaimed they would appoint no more. Yet the Senate must give approval to laws. Cools is herself the longest sitting member of the Senate and an independent. She says: “Senate abolition means abolition of the federation.” http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/we-cannot-forget-the-senates-place-in-the-foundation-of-canada

Democracy Now! – Amy Goodman

Presbyterian minister and Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges denounced corporate America for its unabashed exploitation of prison labour following the practices of mass incarceration. Hedges, author of Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt was speaking at a New York protest this past week-end around the death of so many Black persons at the hands of police. http://www.democracynow.org/2015/10/26/complicity_in_neoslavery_chris_hedges_calls

PRI – Robert Reich

What Germany’s got that America doesn’t

Reich is a well-known economist and former US Secretary of Labour looks at income inequality between the US and Germany and points out some considerable differences. In Germany, the top 1% take home only 11% whereas in the US the top 1% take home 20%. Why? Reich says in Germany it’s strong labour unions, loss in the 50’s in the US. “Unions do have a say in what corporations do in terms of pay and many things that in the United States are prerogatives of management,” he notes. http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-10-26/america-global-leader-income-inequality